Colorado Indeterminate Sentences

Colorado’s Sex Offender Laws: The Nation’s Toughest – Understanding Indeterminate Sentencing

For more than 25 years, defense attorney Ted McClintock has been on the front lines of Colorado’s most challenging criminal cases. Nowhere is his experience more vital than in defending clients against Colorado’s sex offender laws — widely regarded as the toughest in the nation.

In 1998, the Colorado Legislature passed the Sex Offender Lifetime Supervision Act (“Lifetime Supervision Law”), a sweeping statute based on the controversial belief that sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated — the so-called “no cure” model. The result is a sentencing system unlike any other in the country.

What Makes Colorado Different?

Before 1998, individuals convicted of felony sex offenses were sentenced to a specific term of years in prison or probation. Under the Lifetime Supervision Law, however, anyone convicted of certain sex offenses must receive an indeterminate sentence — a minimum prison or probationary term, with a maximum of life.

This means:

• A person can be sent to prison for a minimum sentence, yet their actual release depends on the Colorado State Parole Board deciding they are “no longer a threat.”

• In practice, release is rare. The Parole Board, made up of political appointees, faces enormous pressure to avoid risk, often resulting in continued incarceration.

• Judges, aware of this structure, effectively sentence only to the minimum — but for many defendants, the minimum may ultimately become a life sentence for a single conviction.

Offenses Requiring Indeterminate Sentencing

Colorado law mandates lifetime supervision for a wide range of offenses, including:

• Sexual Assault (C.R.S. 18-3-402)

• Sexual Assault on a Child (C.R.S. 18-3-405)

• Sexual Assault on a Child by One in a Position of Trust (C.R.S. 18-3-405.3)

• Enticement of a Child (C.R.S. 18-3-305)

• Incest / Aggravated Incest (C.R.S. 18-6-301, 18-6-302)

• Patronizing a Prostituted Child (C.R.S. 18-7-406)

• Internet Luring of a Child (C.R.S. 18-3-306(3))

• Internet Sexual Exploitation of a Child (C.R.S. 18-3-405.4)

• And other related felony sexual offenses.

Why These Cases Demand an Aggressive Defense

At McClintock & Associates, we treat any sex offense carrying an indeterminate sentence as the potential life sentence it truly is. Our approach is comprehensive:

• Thorough investigation into every fact and allegation

• Consultation with experts in psychology, forensic evidence, and digital data when necessary

• Rigorous legal analysis to challenge the charges, preserve constitutional rights, and litigate every viable issue

Ted McClintock’s decades of courtroom experience mean your case is never taken lightly. He understands that with Colorado’s indeterminate sentencing laws, the stakes are nothing less than a person’s entire future.